Episode 357: New Listener Emails for a New Year
Date January 3, 2014 Summary Ben and Sam answer listener emails about switching agents, the spitball, rule changes, advanced stats in other sports, and more. Topics * Switching agents * Making changes to baseball * Advanced stats in other sports * Youngest MLB players * Spitballs * Episode 356 follow-up: strikeout rates * Automated umpire technology Intro Phil Ivey sound clip Email Questions * John: "With Josh Donaldson's reported agent change today does he have to pay anything to his old agent? My understanding is that an agent gets a percentage of any salary or endorsement he secures for his client, so I imagine Donaldson would've still owed a percentage of any previously negotiated deals to the old agent, but was curious if there were additional transaction costs (severance, retainer for the new agent, etc) that they player has to bear?" * Eric: "If you have the power to change a single thing about the game for one year, with the single goal of learning more about the game, what would it be? Assume the player's association and teams can't object and you don't care what effect it has on the aesthetics or experience or even on the sport going forward. This is simply your chance to run a controlled experiment and gather a season's worth of data with no repercussions." * Dave: "Do you ever follow trends and new statistics in other sports in case they lead to different ideas about how to look at statistics in baseball? For example, hockey is just in the past few years starting to develop numbers like tracking of zone exits and it seems much of the thinking came from examining the statistical work in baseball. I wonder if it goes the other way and if it does for you guys which stats in which sports have caught your eye?" * Drew: "What is the youngest player that you think will play in the major leagues in the future and what is the youngest that you would want to see?" * Mystic Puppet: "The spitball was a large part of baseball's early culture with some players making Hall of Fame careers out of it. Mostly it has died off with the occasional abuser. What if the pitch made a comeback of sorts and it was revealed that pitchers were using a new spitball that somehow umpires could not detect? How many pitchers do you believe would start using the new pitch? Would it be morally different than it was back in the old days? Also bonus question would any pitchers in particular surprise you the most?" * Mike (Philadelphia, PA): "After listening to yesterday's podcast I was a little confused in regards to your thought process on rising strike out rates and their continuing upward trend. Later in the show Ben mentioned the possible elimination of pitchers hitter. Wouldn't the permanent DH in both leagues, especially with season long interleague, cause the strikeout rate to fall/normalize as you would no longer lose a DH when AL teams played in NL parks and NL vs. NL would no longer have to bat 7 year olds. Or am I wrong in thinking a DH over a full season of at-bats would strike out less than a five man rotation?" * Gordon: "The topic of automated umpiring reminded me of a question I've had since reading Ben's Grantland article on that topic yesterday. In the article you mention the idea of an umpire aide such as a pocket buzzer/LED indicator that would inform an umpire of the PITCHf/x ruling. An adjunct possibility was a heads up display that would give the ump a centered view. I'm wondering about the effect Google Glass or a similar apparatus could have in umpire assistance. I'm by no means an expert on emerging technologies or an umpire for that matter. However if the technology can already give an observer in the stands feedback on pitch type speed and the outcome it seems PITCHf/x could be incorporated directly into the umpire's view of the game. Does this seem like a feasible possibility? Notes * From January-September 2013, Oscar Taveras changed agents four times. * Sam interrupts to note that Phil Ivey (professional poker player) just started following him on Twitter. He follows up by saying that Ivey also follows SABR and Carson Cistulli. Sam was a huge poker buff in his early 20s. He would later mention in Episode 598 that he was no longer being followed by Ivey. * Dan Brooks suggested giving the batter the sign before a random subset of pitches (but not telling the pitcher). * Sam wants to see a league with all pitchers (but no batters) taking steroids and the reverse in another league. * Sam, on young players: "If it were up to me the entire league would be 14-year-olds and 58-year-olds and nothing in between and the bats would have spikes on them. And the 14-year-olds would all be drunk and the 58-year-olds would all be in cars." * Episode 348 follow-up: Sam would like to know how many times a player slides or dives. Links * Effectively Wild Episode 357: New Listener Emails for a New Year * Frick Favors Return of the Old Spitter by The Milwaukee Journal Category:Episodes Category:Email Episodes